Almost four times the amount of 2022
Germany imports significantly more fireworks
November 21, 2023, 12:01 p.m
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Germany will import 6,400 tons of fireworks in 2022. Most of them come from the Far East. This remains the same, but the amount increases drastically before this new year.
Germany has imported almost four times as many fireworks this year as in the previous year. Compared to the first three quarters of 2022, the number rose by 283 percent to 24,400 tons by the end of September, as the Federal Statistical Office in Wiesbaden explained. However, the pre-Corona level has not yet been reached.
From January to September 2019, imports of rockets, firecrackers and the like were 18 percent higher than this year’s figure at 29,800 tons. Last year, only 6,400 tons were imported; before that, the number was even lower due to a sales ban. A ban was also discussed last year.
With a share of 95 percent, almost all of the fireworks imported from January to September came from China, the statisticians explained. Chinese imports to Germany have consistently accounted for more than 90 percent of the pops imported over the past 20 years.
Meanwhile, the export figures have clearly increased – not only compared to the previous year, but also to 2019. By the end of September this year, 4,900 tons of rockets and firecrackers were exported abroad, compared to a good 2,700 tons in the same period last year, and almost 2,000 tons in 2019, that is Statistics Office. The most important buyers of fireworks from Germany are the Netherlands (73 percent), Italy (11 percent) and Belgium (8 percent).
Police union warns of riots
Firecrackers on New Year’s Eve are always associated with crimes and accidents. The federal chairman of the German Police Union (DPolG), Rainer Wendt, warns politicians against underestimating the risk of renewed violent riots on New Year’s Eve. “Overall, the mood is heated and it will probably get worse by New Year’s Eve,” Wendt told the “Bild” newspaper, particularly with a view to the riots in Berlin in recent weeks. That’s why the police were “forewarned, but also very determined,” he emphasized.
However, Wendt rejected a complete ban on firecrackers on New Year’s Eve. This punishes all citizens who use fireworks responsibly just “because a few hundred idiots freak out and attack the police and rescue workers,” he said.
“In practice, the use of strong police forces is necessary, including water cannons to clear streets,” Wendt told the “Bild” newspaper. It would be right to equip the police with modern technology so that they can collect evidence so that the perpetrators can be punished, demanded the union chairman and warned: “If the judiciary continues to use mini-punishments, we will never get this under control. ”